Ness – More than just Security Products

Ness Corporation, manufacturers and wholesalers of award-winning Australian designed electronic security equipment, recently celebrated its 40th year of local security products design and manufacturing and its 14th year of contract manufacturing.

Drawing from its vast experience and utilizing its enviable manufacturing facility, Ness expanded into the field of contract manufacturing at a time that outsourcing to China was rapidly gaining momentum. Against the odds, Ness has defied the national trend by growing this segment of its business substantially.

However, this growth was no accident and has only been achieved by Ness’ quality, flexibility and understanding of all facets of the manufacturing process. At its core, Ness management believes that two key features make it unique in the contract manufacturing business; Ness’ own R&D department whose expertise is proven by the development of numerous award-winning products and Ness’ own distribution network. This means that Ness fully understands what it takes to get a product onto the market from concept to sale, as it too contends with the day-to-day design, production and distribution dilemmas.

Ness passes its experience and tools onto its customers in many ways. Notable examples are the implementation of design rules to maximize yields and field reliability, and a prototyping service utilizing Ness’ in-house 3D Printer (akin to an SLA machine). Ness now boasts a national staff count in excess of 150 personnel with the bulk of its staff concentrated at its head office site in Seven Hills. To the benefit of its customers, Ness continues to invest in high-cost automation to remain at the forefront of technology and continue to be competitive in the marketplace, quietly achieving the goals of its founder and managing director Naz Circosta.

“It made sense to dovetail contract manufacturing into Ness’ business to synergistically improve the cost recovery of our own products and simultaneously pass on the benefits to our subcontract customers” says Naz Circosta. “We offer a full open book policy, flexibility and a 100% product guarantee. Our contract customers have in effect become our partners and most are very long term. We offer them our collective experience amounting to hundreds of man-years and a full set of capabilities in the electronics field not found under any one roof in the country”.

Ness now occupies upwards of 5000 square metres of floor space at its head office facility. Spearheading Ness’ growth is a highly autonomous group of dedicated employees with an average longevity of over 10 years with the company. This speaks volumes about Ness’ working conditions and job satisfaction. Ness’ workforce is well trained and staff turnover at all levels – including the factory floor is incredibly low, greatly reducing the risk of errors. They are proud that their efforts are also winning new clients in the export market throughout Europe, the USA and South-East Asia.

Ness’ latest achievement, certification by Test Safe Australia for the manufacturing of intrinsically safe products, has added to over 18 years of ISO 9001 accreditation. This is an enviable record that very few competitors, if any, can boast. Clients currently benefiting from Ness’ expertise range from diverse fields including automotive, mining, telecommunications and medical industries.

Before constructing its own manufacturing facility, Ness utilized the services of other contract manufacturers, vainly searching high and low, both locally and overseas for manufacturing companies, that could provide Ness with the right combination of quality, on-time delivery and both financial and management stability.

According to Naz Circosta, Ness made the decision to become completely autonomous when it suffered “yet another disaster” at the hands of a contract manufacturer. Ness’ Manufacturing Operations Manager, Wayne Benedetti added that establishing Ness’ in-house manufacturing operations some 15 years ago has resulted in a drastic reduction in PCB quality issues, which Ness lived with for years when dealing with both local and overseas board loaders. As for supply issues, both agree that they are a thing of the distant past.

However, Ness is continually advancing its capabilities to ensure a competitive edge, and a major step it has taken along this path, was the installation of two in-line Flying Probe Testers. Every single loaded PCB is in-circuit tested by one of these machines in addition to at least one other powered test and any other tests as required by Ness’ customers. The “Probers” record pass-fail and out of tolerance data, which is used for statistical analysis, serving to close the quality loop to ensure that every prior process remains under full control. First-Pass Yields are also calculated from the data. This test strategy was pioneered and developed by Ness over eight years ago and is still unique today.

In a constant search and commitment for attaining the highest quality possible for our products and those of our Sub-Contract Customers, in 2009 Ness commissioned an inline Automatic Optical Inspection unit to inspect for Solder defects, Lead defects, Component presence and position, Correct part/polarity, Through-hole parts and solder paste application. The YESTech’s advanced Thin Camera™ technology offers high-speed PCB inspection with exceptional defect coverage. With up to two top-down viewing cameras and four side viewing cameras, the F1-Series inspects solder joints and verifies correct part assembly enabling users to improve quality and increase throughput.

So if you have been searching for a quality manufacturer for any of your electronic requirements then look no further. Ness provides a 100% guarantee.